However, let us sit
down on this knell; even Saddleback and Ullswater will suit what I have
to say better than the English hedgerows, enclosures, and farm-houses.
You must know, then, that when my ancestor, Ian nan Chaistel, wasted
Northumberland, there was associated with him in the expedition a sort
of Southland Chief, or captain of a band of Low-landers, called Halbert
Hall. In their return through the Cheviots, they quarrelled about the
division of the great booty they had acquired, and came from words to
blows. The Lowlanders were cut off to a man, and their chief fell the
last, covered with wounds by the sword of my ancestor, Since that time,
his spirit has crossed the Vich Ian Vohr of the day when any great
disaster was impending, but especially before approaching death. My
father saw him twice; once before he was made prisoner at Sheriff-Muir;
another time, on the morning of the day on which he died.'
'How can you, my dear Fergus, tell such nonsense with a grave face?'
'I do not ask you to believe it; but I tell you the truth, ascertained
by three hundred years' experience at least, and last night by my own
eyes.'
'The particulars, for Heaven's sake!' said Waverley, with eagerness.
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